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The Early Years Foundation Stage at Mellis Primary School

The EYFS Curriculum

Our Early Years curriculum underpins all learning that takes place both inside and outside the classroom by developing and scaffolding the seven areas of development. The Early Years Curriculum was revised in September 2012 and now consists of three Prime areas and four specific areas:

Prime Areas

  • Personal, Social and Emotional Development
  • Communication and Language
  • Physical Development

Specific Areas

  • Understanding of the World
  • Literacy
  • Expressive Arts and Design
  • Mathematics

Each of the seven areas have a series of Early Learning Goals that children are expected to reach by the time they leave their Foundation year. A Foundation Stage Profile is completed on each child to monitor their progress towards achieving these goals.  At the end of the Reception year all parents are given a formal report which provides information on whether their child has met or exceeded the 17 Early Learning Goals in the seven areas of learning

Outdoor Area

The Reception classroom has its own free-flow outdoor area that has been designed for outdoor learning to take place. The outdoor area is looked upon as an extension of the classroom environment and is used by the Early Years staff on a daily basis.  We also take our learning into the school grounds regularly. Every Wednesday we have "Welly Wednesday" when the children have the opportunity to go into our school woodland area to explore and learn.

Mellis School's EYFS Policy and Curriculum Map

Our Aims

At Mellis Primary School we aim to meet the diverse needs of each individual child so that all children can achieve to the best of their ability. Please scroll down to read the School's EYFS Policy.

On a daily basis the Early Years staff aim to:

  • Acknowledge, value and build on children’s successes and their previous experiences.
  • Create a stimulating and engaging learning environment in which children can investigate and develop their learning to the best of their ability.
  • Provide opportunities for children to work individually and to collaborate with other peers and adults to support their learning.
  • Provide the highest standards of teaching, implementing careful and thoughtful planning that targets the children’s needs.
  •  Encourage a positive attitude to learning by providing a range of diverse activities that incorporate the seven areas of learning.
  • Provide a safe, secure and caring environment in which children feel confident to express themselves.
  • Provide opportunities to listen, talk and reflect in a variety of different situations.
  • Provide a challenging environment which gives children the opportunity to engage in first hand experiences that promote curiosity and imagination.

Child centred learning

Ready to learn

We believe that children reach their potential when they are happy, self motivated and showing high levels of engagement. We support the children to become independent learners and let them lead their learning through play.

Children are all unique and we pride ourselves on providing the right learning experiences or targets for the right child at the right time.

Key skills

There are obviously key skills which need to be taught and we do this through daily sessions of Phonics, Maths and English input at the start of each session. After this we provide a variety of learning experiences through our continuous provision both inside and outside.

Planning

When planning we use two different approaches simultaneously. The first is objective led planning where we bring the key targets of prime or specific areas to individual children according to their ability. The second is "In the Moment" or spontaneous planning. This is where we observe the children playing and intervene to move their learning forwards through whatever medium and in whatever area they have selected. 

Learning Journeys

At Mellis Primary School each child in their Reception year has their own unique Learning Journey. These documents not only capture children’s progress throughout the year, but collectively gather all children’s milestones across the seven areas of learning. We currently have three iPads that power the software 'Evidence Me'. This software is used by the Reception class teachers and Teaching Assistant and is fully supported by the Development Matters document.

Sharing with parents

The software allows us to email the children's weekly observations to the parents. The parents are also able to add photographs and comments to their child's Learning Journey from their observations at home. The children are able to access their printed learning journey in the classroom. 

Assessment

We are able to use this software to monitor and assess the children's learning daily and as appropriate at the end of a term or half term. 

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